Women are being denied promotions that lead to top roles like CEO around the world, according to BoardEx.
Its latest study, carried out in partnership with executive search firm Odgers Berndtson, reveals that not enough women are being promoted to roles that develop the experience necessary for advancement to top C-suite jobs, like CEO. The study analyses the gender balance of leadership teams from leading organisations across 26 major countries.
According to the study, women on average, account for 60% of HR and 37% of legal leadership teams across the globe. However, women in the very top leadership roles in those functions only account for 6% and 8%, respectively.
In contrast, general management roles make up 44% of leadership teams, but only 11% are female. In fact, “if every woman in all the leadership teams within these 26 countries moved into general management, they would still only account for 43% of these key roles”, noted the report.
DISAPPOINTING RESULTS
The disappointing results reveal that there are simply not enough women in relevant roles in any country to take sufficient numbers of the top spots in leading global organisations. “Women may be found in numbers in specific functions, but as a whole they still only amount for a disappointing 19% of leadership team positions,” stated Dominick Sutton, Chief Data Officer of BoardEx and author of the report.
Overall, female representation in leadership is making progress, albeit slowly. Significant progress is actually being made across the globe – and not just in North-West Europe or North American. In fact, Australia leads the pack, with 27% female leadership, followed by Malaysia (22%) and South Africa (22%). The US and the UK come in a point lower with 21% female representation within their leadership teams. Surprisingly, “these figures are lower than you would see at board level for those countries”, noted the report.
ADDRESSING GENDER INEQUALITY
“Building a pipeline of leadership talent that is gender diverse is both a moral obligation and good business sense,” stated Kester Scrope, CEO of Odgers Berndtson. “This is where executive search plays a critical role in addressing gender inequality. The best headhunters can identify diverse candidate pools to ensure clients have access to as broad a slate of people as possible.
“This is particularly important for the roles that most often lead to a seat at the top table and is essential for building high-performing leadership teams and cultures that have the skillset mix to stay ahead of competitors.”
Click here for more information about the report.
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